Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be accessed by various types of access terminals adapted to facilitate wireless communications, where multiple access terminals share the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power).
In these systems, the RF performance at the access terminal is a key feature for which further optimization is continuously sought. Thus, many variations of receivers have been developed, and can provide excellent RF performance for wireless access terminals.
One of many issues with which designers of RF receivers are faced is interference. For example, in any multiple access system such as a cellular communication network, interference caused by wireless communication with other users in the network can inhibit the receiver's performance. Further, by virtue of multipath fading, interference from the desired signal itself, which can be smeared over time by the channel before arriving at the receiver, can additionally inhibit the receiver's performance. Because different types of receiver can better address different types of interference, some access terminals have been known to include more than one type of receiver, or in other examples, two or more functional blocks may be included within a receiver, such as its front-end or back-end. In this way, selection of a more suitable receiver, or a more suitable functional block, may be made in an effort to improve the overall performance of the receiver as well as enabling efficient power use.
As the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, research and development continue to advance the technology not only to meet the growing demand for mobile broadband access, but to advance and enhance the user experience with mobile communications.